It is important to backup a mainframe computing system in case of a disaster. Databases such as those shown in FIG. 1 have image copies made and these are sent to offsite storage. The image copies are copies of the databases at the time the image copy was made. If the mainframe computing system is down or destroyed due to a natural or man-made disaster, the image copies can be accessed to restore the mainframe computing system. For instance, most databases have an image copy made nightly and sent offsite. This way the mainframe computing system can be restored to its status from the night before and business can continue if a disaster occurs.
Database image copies can be accessed to restore the mainframe computing system by running a job. The term “job” is often used to describe a process to be carried out on a computer. Exemplary jobs may be carried out on, for instance, a mainframe computer, including recovering databases from image copies and restoring the system. In mainframe computer environments, often times there are three separate pieces of documentations that are necessary for a job to be executed: (1) a job information document in Job Control Language (JCL), (2) a procedure, and (3) a control card. The job information document generally provides at least one job card, for instance setting forth a job name, and one or more statements which indicate what is to be executed. Generally, an execute statement identifies, at least, the name of the procedure to be executed. The procedure is a set of JCL statements that, when executed perform a given process such as restoring databases. The procedure also identifies the control cards necessary for it to be executed. A control card is a record defining what is to be done in the procedure.
Currently there are no processes to determine whether an image copy of a database on the mainframe computing system has been made. A database administrator is required to go through a report to determine that each database in the mainframe computing system has a current image copy. Furthermore, the control cards needed to run the jobs to recover the databases once the image copies have been sent offsite, currently, must be manually built for each database. Because there is no check to determine what databases have had image copies made and sent offsite, it is difficult to recover the mainframe computing system properly from the disaster recovery site because image copies are often missing.
It would be beneficial to be able to automatically determine if a database has an updated image copy stored for disaster recovery if needed. It would also be beneficial to automatically build the necessary control cards needed for disaster recovery.